William Allen Statue To Remain On Display In Ross County

One of the two statues representing Ohio in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall was removed last year because of its subject's views on slavery.

There are questions about what happens to it now amid the current focus on removing Confederate statues. Ohio Public Radio's Karen Kasler explains.

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The statue of Democratic Governor William Allen, who served from 1874 to 1876, represented Ohio in Statuary Hall starting in 1887. But Allen’s pro-slavery views led lawmakers to vote to replace the statue in 2012. Last year it was moved to Chillicothe, where Allen died in 1879. Chillicothe mayor Luke Feeney is also a Democrat, and he says the statue will stay at the Ross County Historical Society.

“From being on display in the Capitol to in a museum where it’s not as prominently displayed, it’s not as much of an honoring of the man as it is a reflection of our history.”

Allen’s statue was replaced with one of inventor Thomas Edison, who was chosen in a statewide contest.

As President Trump doubled down on his defense of Confederate statues and monuments this week, he overlooked an important fact noted by historians: The majority of the memorials seem to have been built with the intention not to honor fallen soldiers, but specifically to further ideals of white supremacy.

As Southern governors, mayors and city councils continue to debate what to do with monuments to Confederate leaders, a plaque honoring southern general Robert E. Lee was quietly removed from a rural Warren County road in Ohio.

President Trump stood by his heavily criticized defense of monuments commemorating the Confederacy in a series of tweets Thursday morning. Trump said removing the statues of Confederate generals meant removing "beauty" — that would "never able to be comparably replaced" — from American cities. As he did in a Tuesday press conference, he also attempted to equate some Confederate generals with some of the Founding Fathers.